About Our Association

Get To Know Us

The American Chuck Wagon Association started out as a small group of Old West enthusiasts and has expanded to world wide association preserving the American past through competitions, demonstrations, charity and school events and other venues.

Check out our Facebook Page

Our work is funded by sponsorships (see the power point presentation shown below-right); tax-free donations, honorariums and memorials (We are a 501.c.3 organization); cookbook, note card, t-shirt & cap sales in our General Store (go shopping), as well as membership dues. For donations, honorariums and memorials, you may send a check to:
ACWA, 1723 East Tate Street, Brownfield, TX 79316 or call Nancy Sparks at (806)215-7851 with credit card information. For Honorariums and Memorials, please include the name of the person remembered/honored, and address for a thank you card.

Youth & the ACWA

Our youth are our future and the ACWA supports activities directly involving them. We encourage producers to offer youth competition at their cook offs whenever possible. Many of our cooking crews include young people at the cook offs. The Association also periodically honors an outstanding young cook with the Rookie of the Year award.

In addition, the ACWA offers scholarships (read more) to selected individuals each year. If interested, download an application here. Scholarship recipients for the upcoming school year are Caleb Swanson from Canton, SD, and Chelsea Carter from Prairie Hill, TX. One of our recipients recently sent an update you may read here.

Another way to involve and educate our youth is with demonstrations. At one cook off, invitations were given to area schools to come on Friday. There were busloads coming and going a good portion of the day. The students were wonderful and the three host wagons enjoyed sharing their camps and telling a little about the history of the chuck wagon and the trail drives.

General Store

Want to take home some of that authentic, Old West taste and style? Now you can with ACWA Cookbooks, beautiful note cards and caps!

Chuck Wagon Catering

Many of our members offer catering services. Check out the link above to contact one of them about bringing some of the finest chuck wagon cooking to your next event.

ACWA News & Events

May, 2017, President's Message

First let me say "Thank You" to Marilyn Johnson, who manages the ACWA website. I know she hates the end of the month! Sitting there wondering when I'm going to get my President's Message in so she can get it posted on the website. However, I always wait until I have the latest information which means she has to pull a rabbit out of the hat to get it on the page by the 1st of the month.

Maribeth and I went to Andrews, Texas to the Wild, Wild West Fest first chuck wagon cook off and ACWA sanctioned event. Andrews Chamber of Commerce President, Jessie Salcido and Executive Director, Julia Wallace put together a very well run event for their first time and have a goal to have twelve wagons in 2018. I think if you talk to any of the six wagon teams there they will say it was a great event!

Planning for the second ACWA Championship Cook Off has already started! It will be held April 5-7, 2018 at the Gillespie County Fair Grounds in Fredericksburg, Texas. So if you would like to be a volunteer at the second one, please let us know as we can never have enough volunteers!

After the verification of results of the Lazy E Arena and Wild, Wild West Fest chuck wagon cook offs, there are six wagons from four states qualified for the second ACWA Championship Cook Off. Here are the remaining ACWA sanctioned cook offs where you can qualify for the ACWA Championship Cook in 2018:
Bob Drake Memorial Chuck Wagon Cook Off - Breckenridge TX - May 5-6
A Painted View Cook Off - Westcliffe CO - August 19
Staked Plains Roundup - Hobbs, NM - September 15-16, 2017 (new sanctioned event)
Chandler Chuck Wagon Cook Off - Chandler, AZ - November 10-11, 2017

Don't forget Wagon for Warriors, May 26-27, 2017 in Lebanon, Missouri. In talking with Steve Hull, his goal is to have at least 35 wagons this year. Let's all pull together to help Steve meet or exceed this goal. Wagons for Warriors raises money to help wounded veterans and their families during their rehabilitation and recovery. Anyone who owns a chuck wagon needs to get involved as a way to say "THANK YOU" to those who have served our country. Support of "wounded warriors" is part of the ACWA mission statement so let's get out and show support for this great event! For more information on this event, contact Steve Hull at www.wagonsforwarriors.com or www.stillhanging.com.

This last weekend in April ACWA Vice President, Sam Howell II and his wagon team along with ACWA Treasurer, Paul Geeslin and his wagon team competed at the Canadian River Renegades chuck wagon cook off in Logan, New Mexico where they experienced several inches of "Global Warming" (snow). On this same weekend across the country at the Vidalia Onion Festival in Vidalia, Georgia, ACWA Southeast Chapter President, Troy Reddick and Vice President, Sammy Hogan cooked in 100 degree temperature with 90% humidity! The extremes of chuck wagon cooking experienced by ACWA members in one weekend!

Well I had better wrap things up for this month. Hope to see y'all at one of the cook offs throughout the year.

"PULLING TOGETHER AS A TEAM IS THE BEST WAY TO GET THINGS DONE." - ANONYMOUS

Until next time, Happy Trails!
Ronnie Sexton
2017 ACWA President

A Little History

In 1996 at a chuck wagon competition in Amarillo, Texas, a small replica rolex group of Old West enthusiasts and wagon masters talked about an association. The mission would be to preserve the heritage of the chuck wagon and its use in the short, but significant, era of the cattle drives. In 1997, in Bryson, Texas, by-laws and articles of omega replica watches operationwere adopted and the American Chuck Wagon Association was off and running. Today there are members in 31 states, Canada, Germany and France.
In 2016, the original mission statement was revised and Sanctioning was approved. The revised mission statement reads as follows:
The mission statement of the American Chuck Wagon Association is to rolex uk preserve the history of the Chuck Wagon Era by providing educational opportunities and events to diverse audiences of all ages while continuing to provide youth scholarships and support for wounded warriors.

The first ACWA Championship Cook Off in Fredericksburg, TX is in the history books.
The weather threatened, but cleared off and everyone had an amazing day. All the crews put out exceptional food that was enjoyed by all. Kudos to the Fairgrounds crew and facility.
Special thank you's to all the ACWA folks who put hours of blood, sweat and tears to make this happen.
And the overall winner is Crosstimber wagon from Mustang, OK, Jack Ramey and crew.

Find complete results for Fredericksburg here.

You can find the 2017 ACWA Championship results and 2018 qualified wagons here.

Here's a pin map Kathy Christensen put together showing member locations.
Click on the dots to see more detail.
Members participate in Cook off competitions, demonstrations, catering, charity events, school visits and many other activities to fulfill that original mission and even surpass the dreams of those organizers. Thank you for visiting our site and we hope you will visit one or more of our chuck wagon events. Read More?

ACWA Welcomes You